The $2,500 award, which honors the work of a young investigator who is pursuing a career in molecular imaging/nuclear medicine, is based in part on submitting a paper supporting current research efforts as well as research accomplishments, teaching, clinical service and administration. It is named in memory of a highly respected and productive clinician and researcher.

El Fakhri is a staff physicist in the joint program in nuclear medicine and an assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. He received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1998 and holds a master's degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Paris and a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Texas, Austin. His interests include the design and evaluation of new compensation methods for physical factors affecting image quality in SPECT and PET for estimation and detection tasks; optimization of acquisition and processing techniques for lesion detection in whole-body oncologic PET imaging; and simultaneous dynamic dual isotope imaging (I-123/Tc-99m) in brain and cardiac SPECT.

SNM recently announced $65,500 in grants and awards for molecular imaging/nuclear medicine researchers and students at its Mid-Winter Educational Symposium in Tampa, Fla. The Education and Research Foundation (ERF) for the Society of Nuclear Medicine funds these awards.

These SNM grants and awards were announced at the society's Mid-Winter Educational Symposium in Tampa, Fla. Please check http://www.snm.org/grants for applications for the society's 2006 grant and award program.